The Dayton Development Coalition has a rather sunny disposition, and a full plate these days. The organization — which strives to bring companies and jobs to a 14-county area — touts more than 4,000 jobs and $740 million in capital investments in the works for the second half of 2013 as the regional arm of JobsOhio.

This comes on the heels of a robust first half of the year in which it was involved with more than 1,300 new jobs and $140 million in investments.

“Our pipeline is really very strong, filled with a really nice mix of projects,” said Scott Koorndyk, executive vice president of economic development for the DDC. “We fully expect to meet our goals.”

Last year the DDC posted more than 3,200 jobs and $400 million in investment, so this year could substantially surpass those marks.

Observers say the growing numbers are being driven by a combination of factors: the overall economy continues to thaw; the region’s assets are in demand; long-term marketing of the region is finally paying off; and the DDC has adopted a more intense targeting strategy using stronger data.

Some of the DDC’s biggest announcements to date this year include:

• Assurant Specialty Property, which is hiring 200 new employees in Dayton;

• DealerTrack Inc., which announced plans to create more than 210 jobs in Wilmington; and

In addition, DDC opened four satellite offices in the first half of the year.

Economic development has been a big thrust as DDC officials look back at the first half of this year and look forward to the second half. But the coalition also is working on multiple initiatives that focus on aerospace and entrepreneurial development.

Its federal retention program is in high gear, preparing the region for a formal or informal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the same time, the organization is working to recruit aerospace companies and set up a UAS Test Center, said Jeff Hoagland, CEO of the DDC.

The DDC is fielding inquiries from companies that want to locate or expand here if the region is named one of six test sites for unmanned vehicles by the FAA. A decision is expected late this year and while Hoagland declined to speculate on how many jobs and how much investment would come here immediately, he pegged the interest as strong.

The final proposal to the FAA, submitted in May, was almost 7,000 pages long.

“But regardless of length, it makes a compelling case that the region has the right mix of assets to prompt selection for a test site,” said Bruce Langos, who serves on the Ohio Third Frontier Commission and as COO of Miami Township-based Teradata Corp.

Big aerospace-related wins for the region this year include hosting the second annual Ohio UAS Conference, which drew more than 600 attendees, up from 450 people the first year, and earning a contract to run the NASA Challenge. The latter is a competition in 2014 and 2015 to fly unmanned craft through an obstacle course set up in the region to prove different products, such as technologies to sense and avoid collisions.

Koorndyk said that brings the right kind of attention here, highlights the region’s assets and establishes more solid relationships with NASA and the FAA.

“As the unmanned vehicle industry emerges in all domains — air, land and underwater — the Dayton region is uniquely positioned to influence its direction nationwide,” said retired U.S. Air Force General Lester Lyles.

Entrepreneurial Development

This spring the DDC hired Joel Ivers to lead its retooled entrepreneurial development efforts.

While it still runs the ESP program — which provides a mix of development services and direct investment in fledgling companies — the coalition plans to broaden efforts to offer entrepreneurial support in the region by becoming a clearinghouse for those looking for assistance including mentoring, technical assistance, seed funding and development prototyping.

The idea is that any local organization that gets an inquiry from an entrepreneur can offer help, but will then pass those leads to the DDC, which will review the situation to see what assistance it can offer and refer it to others that match the needs.

“We’re trying to take all that guesswork out of the entrepreneurial process in the region,” Koorndyk said. “Our goal as a region, as a community, is never say ‘no.’”

Langos said the new system will allow the community to support entrepreneurs in a transparent way and should provide entrepreneurs with a clear understanding of how the region can support their needs.

The ESP program, which faced some challenges getting seed funding from the state to operate this year, is still going strong, officials say. That includes a $500,000 grant from Montgomery County’s ED/GE program and a rallying cry in the form of a letter from the community to the state asking it to reconsider seed funding for ESP.

“I‘ve just been blown away by the kind of support that entrepreneurs have gotten in this community from all the different organizations in the area coming together,” Koorndyk said.

Also new for 2013, the DDC is developing an innovation index, something done in some more progressive communities, to measure local variables such as society, talent, commercialization and global fluency. The goal is to assess the region’s economic health beyond job numbers. This includes understanding drivers for economic development, such as what factors improve exports and foreign direct investments.

The benchmarks can be used to help organizations in the community develop strategies and measure the impact.